Europe Urged to Develop Single Airspace

European governments need to focus on developing a single airspace over the coming year to achieve greater sustainability, interoperability and cost efficiency in the air traffic management industry, the European Commission (EC) says.

Speaking at the ATC Global conference in Amsterdam, EC Director of Aviation Daniel Calleja told delegates the EC will encourage the Council of Transport Ministers to approve the air traffic management master plan in order to launch the development phase of SESAR in June.

"The establishment of a community performance framework will allow us to tackle fragmentation, to reduce inefficiencies and to ensure sustainable development of the industry," he says.

Calleja says an important aspect of the SESAR proposal is the establishment of a single regulatory body.

"The community method has to be the driving force of aviation regulation.

"Using that method we can work faster and be more efficient."

The Netherlands Ministry of Transport Public Works and Water Management Secretary General Wim Kuijken says fragmentation of airspace in national compartments results in extra costs to users, sub-optimal quality and unnecessary burdens.

"In Europe at least, we're working on the complex but inevitable process of relinquishing the national borders and organising airspace more in line with functionality," he says.

"National borders in air traffic will eventually disappear."

Calleja expects the SESAR programme to drive technological innovation in the air traffic control industry, but says it is imperative innovations are developed on a global scale, not regionally.

"If the technology is to be successful it has to be global.

"This is why the European Union is engaged with EUROCONTROL in very important discussions with the United States.

"It is critical to ensure that SESAR and NextGen are fully interoperable for the success of both programmes."

SESAR is the operational part of Single European Sky legislation launched by the EC in March 2004.

Set to reform ATM in Europe, it includes two phases, starting with the establishment of a commonly agreed European ATM Master Plan.

By Elizabeth Clifford-Marsh